In a precautionary move designed to assist authorities in Honduras in case of a hurricane disaster, the U.S. Marines have been scheduled to deploy to the Central American republic.

Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren discussed the upcoming deployment of Marines to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility today, saying: “About 200 Marines will deploy to Honduras from June to November to coincide with the hurricane season, during which time they could be called upon to provide disaster relief in the region.”

In addition to the upcoming hurricane aide, Col. Warren announced the Marines would be assisting in construction and restoration projects in the country as well. As quoted in the U.S Department of Defense press release, Col. Warren said: “Those Marines will also provide engineering assistance for projects in Honduras to include the construction and rehabilitation of roads and schools.”

Col. Warren added that, as with all exercises of this kind, “the Department of State and U.S. Ambassador were consulted in every step, and approved this deployment, as did the government of Honduras.”

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused the death of 5,657 people (a number that does not take into account the 8,058 that were missing), and injured another 12,272 individuals in the region. Ten years after the disaster, as detailed by Unicef, around 200,000 Hondurans were deeply affected by the severe flooding caused by the heavy rains, and 20,000 people were forced to flee their homes for shelters.

The announcement of the coming U.S. Marine deployment to the tropical storm prone region comes a day after U.S. Pacific Command announced the name of its humanitarian disaster relief operation, which is right now assisting Nepal in the wake of the magnitude-7.8-earthquake that hit the developing country on April 25, would be Operation “Sahayogi Haat,” which translates to “Helping Hand” in Nepali, according to a Pentagon press release.